A Reason for Wasting the Day
by King of slackers
Summary: Just a regular day in the life of the members of Team Ten: Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji. Ino thinks that Shikamaru wastes his day away looking up at the sky with Chouji. What's so great about the sky, she wonders. A little ShikaxIno


So yeah...I don't know why, but I thought I'd just try to attempt something like this. Not really my forte, but hey, it's good to try something new right? Well, maybe...heh. I guess you'll just have to read it and decide for yourself.

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A Reason for Wasting the Day

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They were watching the sky again like they always did on lazy afternoons such as this. All the other teams were busy training hard and honing skills, but not hers. The two of them were sprawled out on the soft grass, taking in the rays of the sun and the magnificence of the blue vastness that stretched from horizon to horizon. An unmotivated slacker, a glutton who was in love with food: these were her team mates. No wonder they were probably the weakest squad of their generation. They would rather do silly things like lay in the grass than put forth any effort. The gaunt one yawned and the chubby one belched, both of them snacking on the bag of barbeque flavored chips that was sitting between them.

"Train with me!" she urged them, "I need to train so that I can stay ahead of Sakura!"

A dull, uninspiring voice answered her andt told her that she was being too noisy.

She stormed away in anger. Some friends they were. Who needed those two, anyway? She could train by herself.

But it just didn't feel right. There she was, alone, practicing her taijutsu. It felt awkward, not having anyone here with her. It should be a crime for such a pretty girl to waste a day like this by herself, she thought.

She didn't get much training done, and she headed back.

"Hi, Ino!"

She heard the voice call to her as she walked down the main street of Konoha. Sakura. The girl looked tired from a day of working with the Fifth. Ino cursed at herself for not training more.

"Sorry, but I'm a little busy. Shishou is working me hard today."

Ino looked a bit disappointed as her old friend walked away. She had asked Sakura if she wanted to go somewhere together. Loneliness was not a good companion. The sun was hovering low; she had spent most of the day alone.

On her way home, she passed the grassy field next to the park. Sure enough, those two guys were still there. Empty potato chip bags littered the ground around them, and Ino was sure that they had been thoroughly cleaned dry of every little crumb thanks to Chouji.

She sat down at their feet, but neither of them hailed her.

"You guys have been here all day? You're so boring!"

Once again, it was Shikamaru who responded to her.

"If we're so boring, then don't hang out with us."

"And you, Chouji, you could do with some exercise!" she said.

"Geez, Ino," he said after swallowing a mouthful of chips, "did you come here just to call us boring and make fun of me? That's mean."

"You have to be nicer if you ever want a boyfriend," added Shikamaru.

"Now listen here!" she told them, "I could get one if I wanted to, but there's no one in this entire village I want besides Sasuke-kun, and he's not here right now!"

"If that's the case, then stop complaining to us about the boys not noticing you," he said back.

Ino showed him her deep frown and shook her fist at him. He just stared at her as he did everything; with a bored indifference.

She gave a sigh and laid back, her eyes searching the sky.

"What are you guys looking at, anyway?"

Shikamaru ignored her question. Instead, he pointed at a cloud, nudged Chouji with his elbow, and loudly stated that it looked like Ino when she was angry. The other boy covered his eyes. He didn't want to look at it, he says, it's too scary.

She saw their eyes glancing warily in her direction as they said this. They had better be scared. She was going to get them back for that.

As she thought of ways to inflict pain on the other members of squad ten, the clouds above rolled slowly by. She watched one. It was a big, puffy cloud, and it floated along on the breeze gracefully. It looked so soft; she could imagine wrapping her arms around it and feeling almost nothing at all. Everything was so…peaceful. It was a weird feeling. She closed her eyes and began to notice everything around her. The feel of the soft grass beneath her tickled her skin. It made her itch, in a way, but not in a bad way that was uncomfortable. The feeling ran up her bare legs, her arms, and the back of her neck. The birds; she heard the birds, their voices so soothing and melodic, playful and carefree.

And when she opened her eyes, she was greeted by the calm sky. She could only wonder what it would be like to be a bird and fly through that endless blue. She stretched her arms out and envisioned herself doing so.

The rustling sound of Chouji's hand reaching for a handful of chips distracted her senses.

She reached for some herself, but her hand hit Shikamaru's, who was also in the mood for the savory smoked barbeque flavor. He looked up at her, and his gaze seemed to trace from her face, to her shoulders, down her arm, and to her hand. Both his and her hands were still lingering there just above the bag. He gave her a look that she didn't quite know what to make of, and the creases in his forehead slowly became more defined. Somewhere inside of her she laughed. He was even lazy at raising his eyebrows.

Why was he looking at her like that? Was he that irritated over their hands hitting each other? Or maybe he thought it was awkward for their hands to be touching. Why make a big deal out of it? It wasn't like they had never touched each other before; they were on the same team. Unless, maybe he…

What man in his right state of mind would not blush at a pretty girl's touch? She examined his reaction, paying attention to the color of his cheeks.

"Oh," he said in his usual voice, "are you still here?"

So that was it. He was just surprised because he thought she had already left. Idiot. She slapped his hand out of the way and snatched the whole bag. It was stupid of her to have thought so much about something as small as this.

"Hey, I wanted some!"

Ino ignored him and kept the bag for herself.

"Man," Shikamaru complained to Chouji, "It was much more peaceful before she showed up."

She crunched on them as loudly as she could. But Shikamaru grinned at her.

"You'd better keep track of how much of those you eat, Miss 'I need to watch my figure.'"

She glared at him, but she stopped eating. Ignoring their demands to give the bag back, her focus returned to the clouds. Moving slowly with the wind, they altered shape as they glided across the sky. She didn't know how long she stared at them, but before she had even realized it, they had already traveled halfway across the blue colored canvas. She looked for the sun. It was setting. How long had they been out here?

"Well, I'm hungry," declared Chouji, getting up to his feet.

"We know," sighed the other, groaning as if getting up to his feet took all the effort in the world.

Together they picked up their mess and shoved them all in the box that Chouji had brought them in. Standing on either side of her, Ino saw them looking down. They asked her if she was coming along, and she held up both her hands so that they could help her up.

Shikamaru was curious. If she thought they were boring, why was she still hanging around?

"Bonding with team mates helps build the strength of our teamwork!" she answered cheerfully.

The two boys thought it was a weird way to bond with team mates by making fun of them and stealing their food. That's what they tell her. Then they laugh together, agreeing that Ino is noisy and mean. She yells, hits them both on the head, and keeps on walking, but they snigger at each other because she just proved them right.

They eat at the usual place, and the usual things happen as they usually did. Chouji ate all the cooked meat, regardless of who had put them there to cook in the first place and despite Ino's yelling. Shikamaru tries to quiet her down and tells her that she knew Chouji was going to do that from the start because that's just what he does, and if she didn't want to eat with them she could have gone somewhere else. She doesn't listen, of course, she keeps yelling. And Shikamaru just looks at them hopelessly and sighs while eating anything that's left over.

It's dark out now. They know that it's Chouji's philosophy that "the best thing to do after a good meal is take a nap," so they walk him to his house and say goodbye as he stumbles inside.

"What about you, Shikamaru, you going to look at the sky some more?"

No, he says. He doesn't really care to do it at night when it's not blue.

"But the stars are so amazing! You haven't got an ounce of romance in you!" she tells him.

He responds with a shrug and tells her that romance is troublesome.

They don't talk much as he makes his way home. Ino just shakes her head while thinking about just how hopeless her team mates were. They hadn't changed since she had met them at the Academy: a boy who worshipped food and a boy who slept and complained all the time. When she found out that they were going to be a team, Ino honestly didn't know how they were going to work out. Neither of them matched with her, they were both annoying, and they never seemed to be on the same page. What was worse, she had been jealous because Sakura had been placed on Sasuke's team.

She had always been envious of that. Back when they had taken the Chuunin exams for the first time, Ino remembered asking Sakura, "how does it feel to be on such an amazing team?"

There was Naruto. Although he was annoying sometimes, he was always fun to have around. He beat Neji. He was spirited, energetic, and confident: everything that Chouji was not.

Then there was Sasuke. He was the most popular guy amongst the girls. He was just so cool and so attractive: Shikamaru wasn't like that at all.

But she realized that they had been through so much together already. She began to see past their annoying habits and started to see what kind of people they really were. They were nice people; good people. They were people who would never abandon her, never leave her side when she needed them. They had gotten to know each other so well, and though she wouldn't readily admit it to anyone, she had enjoyed spending hours on the grass doing absolutely nothing with them.

Arguing with them had become so natural that it was like an everyday part of life. If she didn't have those two to argue with, her day would feel empty.

She decided liked her team. She wouldn't trade them out for Naruto or even Sasuke. Not anyone.

She bumped into Shikamaru because she wasn't paying attention. It wasn't until she felt his jacket wrap around her that she noticed that she had been shivering and rubbing her arms together. She must have been so deep in thought that she hadn't realized what she was doing, and that didn't happen often; the thinking part.

They walked on, and Ino noticed that he was trying to hide he fact that he was cold now that she was wearing his coat. He only had his black mesh shirt. It was thin and had holes in it. She offered his clothing back to him, but he denied being cold. She suggested that they take turns wearing it, but he just mumbled something about it being a man's duty to be cold and that all women are bothersome.

With a smile she caught up to him and walked backwards in order to face him. She told him a story that her dad had told her. It was about when he and Shikamaru's dad were out on a mission in the Land of Snow and they were caught in a huge blizzard. They had to seek shelter in a nearby cave, but it was still really cold. To survive, they huddled close together for the entire night, keeping each other warm with their body heat. They slept in each other's arms.

Ino got what she was looking for. She saw his face twist with awkwardness.

Shikamaru just looked at her funny and told her that she was just being dumb and asked why she had told him such a story.

"Well, wouldn't that be weird if you and I had to do something like that?"

The boy looked away from her and asked her why she was wondering such a thing.

"Shikamaru, are you blushing?" she asked him this as she moved closer to investigate.

She took pleasure in seeing Shikamaru flustered because he could usually keep his wits about him.

"Of course not," he assured her, but she saw that he was lying.

Ino smiled at the fact that he was blushing while thinking about the scenario.

He told her that if they were ever in that situation, which he highly doubted they would be, then obviously they wouldn't let each other freeze to death. It was a stupid, obvious question.

She walked at his side now, and he was off and mumbling again about how women messed with people's heads and you never know where you stand with them.

"You mean there is something that Mr. 'Genius Boy' can't figure out?" Ino asked him with an exaggerated gasp of surprise.

He continued to mumble: they always get mad about the slightest thing and go off on you. That is what she heard him say. And to that, she replied that all men are idiots; even genius ones with 200 IQ's.

They made it to his house and they stood facing each other. His dad came outside and saw them talking in the street. He hollered at them.

"Huh? My boy's got a girl walking with him late at night? Oh! It's Inoshi's daughter! I wonder what he would say…"

"Shut up, dad…"

"I'm heading out for some drinks with him right now! I think I'll tell him."

With that, he walked in the direction that they just came from and laughed boisterously all the way down the street. It was his mother's turn to embarrass him.

"Oh how cute!" she called from the window, "she's wearing your jacket!"

Ino just smiled and waved at her. The Nara family was always like this, thinking that she and Shikamaru were together. And when Chouji was with them, all of their parents would get togehter and talk about some scandalous love triangle between them. Maybe that was why her team worked so well together. They were the second generation of InoShikaCho. Perhaps they were meant to be a team.

"Mom…"

Ino saw Shikamaru's red face. He was blushing again, but when he saw her looking at him, he straightened himself up. That was the second time today, and both of them had been at the thought of him and her together...

She looked up to the stars as she wondered what he was thinking. They were so beautiful and sparkly, and the moon was so luminous against the pitch black background of the sky. She didn't see how anyone would prefer it during the day rather than the night. Only Shikamaru...

"Why do you stare at the sky all day?" was all she could think of asking him.

Sure, she had had fun doing it with him and Chouji, but she didn't know if she could have kept at it all day long.

He hesitated. If he told her, she would just make fun of him. But he knew that she would keep being persistent. She was Ino, after all. She promised that she wouldn't laugh, but he knew she would, so he just kept it simple.

"I just like it, ok?"

She wasn't satisfied, and eventually she was able to get the whole truth.

"It's…it's the feeling I get. The sky is just so peaceful. I get lost in it, and it makes me feel like I want to be there."

He struggled, trying to find the words.

"I don't really know how to explain it, but…I think it's beautiful and it makes me feel...I dunno, good I guess. I could stare at it all day and it would never get old."

Ino was surprised to hear what he had to say. He usually didn't talk like this; he had never revealed this side of himself to her before. But she agreed with him completely. She remembered how she felt when she closed her eyes and stretched her arms out on the grass. She felt like she was floating. She felt like she was soaring.

Then she remembered something. It had only happened maybe three or four times since they had known each other, but Ino had caught Shikamaru staring at her. When she asked him why, his answer was always the same:

"Your eyes are like the sky"

Up until now, she had figured that he only meant that her eyes were the same light blue color as the sky. After getting his answer, she would just tell him to knock it off because it freaked her out. She recalled everything he had just said. And she saw it now; he was looking into her eyes again, the same look of intent on his face that she had only seen those few other times.

She finally understood that he hadn't just been comparing the colors. Ino couldn't help but smile at him.

"Tch. I knew you were going to laugh. I never really talk like that, but it's the truth."

"It's not that. I'm just glad you told me. Maybe you do have a little romance in you, after all."

"Whatever. You don't need me to walk you home, do you? I mean, I'm already at my door, here."

"No. I wouldn't want you going out of your way for little old me, you lazy bum," she said, hinting sarcasm.

Shikamaru headed for his door, and Ino offered to give his jacket back. He told her to keep it for the walk home and that she could give it back to him whenever they saw each other tomorrow.

He headed inside, gave her a small wave, yawned, and closed the door behind him.

Ino was left alone, warm and snug on the inside and the outside thanks to him.

"Yeah," she said quietly, bringing the collar of his jacket to her cheek and feeling the warmth of the soft fabric.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Shikamaru."


End file.
